Here I am in Athens!!
It was a long haul to get here but I slept on the plane & only have a little jet lag.
I was fortunate that yesterday after I had settled in, my Air b&b host came to fetch me & gave me a small tour of the local neighbourhood. The area I am staying is called Pangrati or in Greek ΠΑΥΚΠΑΤΙ & is right next to the Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympic Games.
We walked first to the stadium to meet a couple of her friends & their dogs. The neighbourhood of Pangrati is know for it’s dog’s, amongst other things & many people are out in the evening walking the dogs. Most of the dogs seem to be very well behaved, probably just happy to be out & about?? Apartments are generally pretty small, with little or no balcony, so walking dogs is a necessary part of the daily routine here.
We stood on the hill at the back of the stadium & looked over this vast & sprawling city as the sun was setting. There were lots of young folks sitting in groups, smoking (a national sport!) & my host was explaining that in Greece family is important & the kids live at home for a long time. Like our youngsters in Australia, the affordability of a home here is fairly unattainable for most people. Even rent is unaffordable. The minimum wage here is about 700 euro a month $1160 AUD. Despite this people seem happy enough & most people are really friendly & welcoming.
The hill in the distance is Lycabettus Hill with a Church on the top of it. Athens sits in a bowl, surrounded by hills, so it holds heat in Summer but is not windy, apparently.
We continued our tour by dropping down into Pangrati proper & ended up in a little square (there are squares everywhere) where we sat underneath a flowering jasmine & I had my first Greek coffee. It was delicious & perked me up no end! However, by 9pm I was like a walking zombie & had to come home to go to bed.
Somewhere in the course of the journey I ate something that didn’t agree with me so my first night of sleep was very broken. I awoke at 6am feeling very depleted & with no food in the apartment I knew I would have to venture out to find something.
After yoga & a shower (lovely tiny little bathroom with blissful hot water) I made my way down the street in search of some toast & a cup of tea. I was grateful that by the time I stumbled outside the sun was shining & because of last night I had a vague idea of where I was.
Breakfast was taken sitting in a window upstairs looking over the park next to the apartment & after some stilted communication I ended up with toast & black tea. Feeling much refreshed I came back to the apartment to get my hat & on the way out met the upstairs neighbour who was heading down the street with her pull along shopping trolley.
Using a mix of Greek, mime & patience I found out that she is from Lithuania & has 5 grandchildren, one of whom speaks 4 languages! She was going to the outdoor market to buy her fresh fruit & vegetables. I didn’t actually understand that & so was overjoyed when I found it, after leaving her in another shop. I love a produce market & this was fabulous.
Squashed into a closed off street the orange umbrellas & shouts of the vendors were hard to miss. The smell of flowers filled the air & traditional music drifted amongst the locals doing their Friday morning shop. The colours of both the produce & the graffiti on the walls behind the stalls were vivid & the stall holders were all calling out for customers to buy their wares.
Strawberries must be in season because there were beautifully displayed mountains of them next to zucchini, eggplants & as many different salad leaves & herbs as anyone could possibly need. There were olives, sweets, eggs, flowers & fish. Everyone is chatting & the words on everyone’s lips are Καλά & εντάξει, good & ok. These two words might be the only ones I need to get by here?
I wonder if a culture which uses the word good so much could be unhappy? Καλός, pronounced Kalos means beautiful & is used to describe a thing which is not only good but lovely too. I have spent a lot of my conversational day saying Kala or poly Kala (good or very good) & every time I’ve said it I feel a little more Greek!
Anyway, I wandered around the market & realised it was in the street next to the stadium! How cool is that? An outdoor produce market next to an Olympic stadium, originally built in 330 BC, which has probably taken place in some form since that time. That blows my mind 🤯
Next was a quiet moment inside the Church of St. Spyridon of Stadion, a Byzantine Greek Orthodox Church which serves the neighbourhood of Pangrati. It is beautiful inside & much more quiet than the bustling streets that surround it. Filled with paintings, crosses, gold & carved stone it didn’t make me feel holy but I did feel a sense of calm, sitting quietly & resting my feet for a moment!
The main aim of my day was to find my way to the language class I will be attending next week & so with that in mind I made my way to the phone shop to sort out m eSIM data roaming so I could access maps. With the phone working I wandered the streets looking like a complete tourist with wide eyes & a silly smile on my face!
I walked through the Athens National Garden, full of tourists & locals alike enjoying the sunshine & down Ermou, which is one of the main streets in Athens, full of shops & crammed with tourists. I noticed what I thought was an unusually large number of youngsters & further enquires led me to discover that the schools have a four day weekend as there is a public holiday on Monday. It’s Independence Day & according to Wikipedia there will be a big military parade to celebrate the Greek war of Independence which liberated Greece from Ottoman occupation in 1829.
Fighting my way through the crowds I found myself in Pl. Kapnikareas, home of the Holy University Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, built in the 11th century. In the corner of the square is the language school & after ascending 6 flights I was presented with a locked door! No-one there but a quick phone call & I have class on Monday. Going to the toilet I followed the corridor & gazed out of the window at the buildings below. I almost neglected to notice the Parthenon right in front of me! Just wow, can’t believe I’m actually here!
Coming back downstairs I set off back to my apartment. It had become overcast & was getting colder so I hustled back through the crowds, stopping on the way to get cash out so I could buy some fresh produce at the market, no one has POS, as they call it.
A detour into the market & I left with a free bag of olives, apples, banana, a baguette, some local marmalade & nut pastries, tomato’s & walnuts. That should keep me going for a couple of days! Lunch was three chicken skewers cooked over an open flame, drizzled with oil, salt & lemon juice, bloody delicious.
By this time it was 2pm & I was knackred so after eating my lunch I flopped onto the couch for a siesta. It’s only 7.30pm but I’m going to bed shortly. It’s been a huge 48 hours & I still feel a bit spacey, nothing a good nights sleep won’t fix though.
Host just dropped off a yoga mat for me to use, along with a bag of oranges from the village. I assume she means the village of Pangrati? There are orange trees lining the streets, fully laden with ripe bright orange πορτοκαλί (portokali). Feeling very welcomed & lucky to be here 🥰